


5 times Dex fell asleep in front of Nursey

by Inevii



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 5 + 1, M/M, but thats not a central focus of the fic, emotionally stunted hockey bros, mild homophobia, the central focus is that Dex is a dweeb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-03 06:06:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6599770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inevii/pseuds/Inevii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 times Dex fell asleep in front of Nursey (and one time they fell asleep together)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Library

The library was quiet. Only one other person was in the room aside from Dex and Nursey, who were managing, for once, to work comfortably side by side. The rest of the Samwell Hockey team had either bailed earlier after hearing that chicken tenders were in the canteen today (Ransom and Holster) or had a date with a member of the volleyball team (Chowder and also Ransom? Dex wasn’t really sure, and also didn’t really care). As it was, the library was almost silent save for the clicking of keyboards and the soft music coming from Nursey’s headphones.

Dex was bored. He had spent almost the entire morning at this point trying to finish the homework for him and Chowder’s CompSci class, and had only just decided that enough was enough and he needed a break. Pushing his laptop aside and groaning as the muscles in his shoulders popped from disuse, he let his head fall to the table with a low _thunk_.

He heard a low chuckle from his left, but didn’t raise his head to look over. “I’m guessing you’re done then?”

“I’m done in the sense that I no longer give a shit” Dex told the table, closing his eyes. “Fuck CompSci. Who the hell told me this was a good idea?”

“I don’t know man. Like I said before, poetry’s more my speed. Maybe you should try it.”

Dex raised his head just enough to glare at Nursey half-heartedly. Nursey had pulled a headphone from one ear, the tinny beat now playing clear enough for Dex to make out the tune, and was smirking slightly in the direction of the notebook he was writing in. His smirk increased almost imperceptibly when he noticed Dex frowning at him. _Asshole_

“Yeah sure.” Dex snorted, giving up with the glare. He was too tired to pull it off properly anyway. “Do I really come across as the poetry type?” This was again directed towards the table as he dropped his head back down, slightly more gently this time.

“Maybe, who knows. Hidden depths man. What even is a _poetry type_ , as you so eloquently put it?” Dex could practically hear the stupid smirk on Nursey’s mouth at this point

Dex growled. “An asshole, apparently” came the muffled reply.

“Oh, well in that case yeah, you’re definitely the poetry type.”

“Oh fuck off” Dex yawned. Last year, if they’d had this conversation Dex would have been pissed, and the entire thing would have eventually devolved into one of them storming out. As it was, Dex was content to let it be, if not mostly because he was too exhausted to come up with a clever comeback. “Actually you know what, I’m going to take a nap. I’m practically thinking in code at this point.”

At this, Nursey finally looked his way, seemingly surprised. “Hey dude, you okay? We can head back to the dorms if you want, I was planning on leaving soon anyway.”

Dex waved a hand in Nursey’s direction, pulling his backpack over to give his head something more comfortable to rest on. “You can go if you want, but I’ve got to get this finished by the end of the day. I just need a break”

Nursey didn’t look convinced, but shrugged anyway and put his headphone back in. “Whatever you say man.” Dex almost missed having Nursey’s attention focused on him, but thankfully passed out before he could process that thought any further.

* * *

 

When he woke, it was to the sound quiet chatter as the library had now filled with other students. Groaning at the abrupt awakening, Dex slowly raised his head trying to work out how long he had been asleep for. The light pouring through the windows was softer, and the place next to him, previously filled by Nursey was now empty.

Trying not be disappointed, Dex blinked the sleep out of his eyes and looked around. Ransom and Holster had returned and were chatting unusually quietly together in the corner, heads bent close together, but the table was otherwise unoccupied. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he squinted at the time.

“Fuck”

“Hey, sleeping beauty awakes!” Holster’s booming voice echoed over, gaining a few dirty looks from people studying nearby

“Damn bro, you were out cold” Ransom leaned over. “Nursey said he tried to wake you earlier but you’ve been down for almost four hours”

“Oh. Um, where…?” Dex shook his head, dropping his backpack back to the ground and sliding his laptop over. “Fuck I feel like I just slept for a week”He groaned, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Where did Nursey go? Dunno, he headed out after we got here. Probably to see if there was any pie left.” Holster shrugged.

“Wait, he was still here when you two got here? I thought he said he was leaving earlier?” Nursey  had said that he’d almost finished his work, there was no reason to stay behind after Dex had passed out.

This time it was Ransom who shrugged “Well he was still here when we got here, I dunno, 30 minutes ago? But he left pretty soon after that.”

“Huh.” There was probably something there that Dex was missing, but honestly at this point he was too groggy to try and work that out. “You know what, I think I’m going to just head back to my room” He said, putting his laptop away and rising from his seat. “I’ll do the rest in the morning”

“Sure man. There’s chicken tenders at the Haus if you want some” Holster said “Me and Lardo managed to steal a couple of trays when the cooks weren’t paying attention. Dex waved him off and shouldered his bag.

“I’m good. I’ll see you at practise tomorrow” He said turning and heading out of the library.

The truth was, Dex had been having trouble sleeping lately. His roommate was not particularly bothered by things like _awareness for others_ or _common decency_ and had either sexiled Dex, or come bursting back in in the early hours of the morning usually waking Dex. It had only become a problem recently, as before he had had a semi-serious girlfriend and so spent most nights at hers. Now however,it seemed as though they had broken up, and Dex was the one paying the price.

He hadn’t had a chance to bring it up yet as said roommate only appeared to use his room when Dex wanted to sleep, but if he left it much longer there was a chance it could begin to mess with his hockey and that wasn’t fair to Ransom and Holster. Much as they tried to hide it,it was evident they were worried about filling the space left by Jack, and had been working incredibly hard trying to get the team prepared for the upcoming season.

Dex sighed as he made his way slowly towards his dorm. Even though he was genuinely worried about the effect it could have on his hockey and school work, he was honestly more embarrassed about falling so deeply asleep in front of Nursey, who had possibly waited for Ransom and Holster before leaving? It wouldn’t have been impossible to try and wake him; Dex wasn’t a particularly deep sleeper, but Ransom and Holster had said that he’d tried? It seemed unlikely, but Dex couldn’t think of another reason for Nursey to wait behind for over three hours. He definitely did not have enough work to justify staying there that long.

Angrily, he kicked a can on the side of the pavement. This was stupid. He was tired, he wasn’t thinking straight, and Nursey barely tolerated him. _He_ barely tolerated Nursey. He was overthinking this, and he was _tired._ He was talking to his roommate tomorrow, he decided as he got to his thankfully empty room, dumping his bag to the side and collapsing on his bed. Clearly, lacking this much sleep was beginning to affect him more than he realised.


	2. Haus

A few days had passed since Dex had fallen asleep in the library, and he had managed to avoid any other embarrassing incidents since then. Surprisingly Nursey hadn’t attempted to chirp him for it, and although Dex thought that it was weirdly out of character, he was too thankful to try and find out why.

In fact, Nursey had been behaving kind of weirdly overall. Dex couldn’t remember the last time they had had an argument, or even a mild disagreement. Instead, Nursey seemed to become hesitant whenever conversations started to get heated, and if Dex really thought about it, he could almost say that Nursey was worried? But that was stupid, he had no reason to be.

Dex yawned widely, kicking the door to the Haus closed as he stepped through into the hall, dropping his bag as he went. He could hear the faint sound of Beyonce coming from the direction of the kitchen, and angry yelling coming from the lounge.

“Come on Chowder, why would you pick Rainbow Road? What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“I like Rainbow Road!!! You can change it if you want, I don’t mi-”

“Chill Holster, it’s not that hard, come on.”

“- I just think the road is rea-”

“Not that hard?! Nurse have you ever played this game before?!”

“Sure. Hell, I’ll show you how easy it is”

“Oh it is on, asshole.”

Dex turned the corner, finding Nursey and Holster sitting on the couch, controllers in hand, focusing intently on the screen. Chowder was sitting on the floor beside Holster leaning against the armrest, also focusing on the screen, but somehow the only one who looked like he was actually enjoying himself.

“Hey Dex!!! Are you joining us?!” Chowder grinned in his direction, somehow still managing to stay on the road without looking at the TV. Holster however, was progressively growing redder and redder next to him.

“Maybe. Where’s Ransom?” Dex asked, as he settled on the floor against the other armrest. His view of Chowder was now blocked by Nursey’s legs as he leaned forward, eyes still intent on the game.

“I’m not sure. I think Holster said he had a study thing?! But I thought Ransom’s idea of studying meant crying in a ball, so I’m not sure.”

“Harsh man”

Dex looked up. Nursey was still looking at the game, but had quirked a small smile at Chowder’s comment. It definitely did not make Dex feel slightly warmer. At all. He looked back in the direction of Chowder, currently in the midst of stammering out apologies.

“Lardo?” he asked instead.

“Something to do with sculptures I think? She sounded kind of stressed so I didn’t want to ask. She still scares me slightly.”

“Dude she scares everyone slightly, that’s Lardo, but more importantly hOW THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING THAT!?” Holster threw his controller on the ground angrily as Baby Peach fell off the side of the map, not for the first time “This game is RIGGED, and I am not sitting here any longer.” He launched himself off the couch, storming towards the front door muttering angrily. “I’m going to go find Rans.”

The lounge was quiet for a moment

“I’m guessing that’s why board games are banned, huh?”

Chowder hopped up from where he had been leaning against the couch, taking Holster’s vacated space. “So uh, Dex? Are you joining?!”

Dex shook his head. “Nah I’m fine just watching. It’s been kind of a long day, I’m pretty beat.” he felt more than saw Nursey’s eyes on him after he said that, but didn’t look over. After a couple of seconds, Nursey looked away again, and Dex’s shoulders dropped. It’s not like Nursey had anything to say anyway, Dex had no reason to be disappointed.

Chowder and Nursey started playing a new round and Dex let himself relax against the couch. Within a few minutes, he felt his eyes beginning to droop again, and try as he might he found himself nodding off while Chowder laughed delightedly at beating Nursey for the third race in a row.

* * *

 

When Dex woke, Bitty had joined them and was sitting close to (but in no way touching) the couch, and Chowder had disappeared somewhere. He had only been asleep for a short while this time, so it only took him a few seconds to gain his bearings, but when he did, it took everything he had not to freeze up.

Apparently, while he had been dozing, he had slid sideways slightly and was now leaning completely against Nursey’s legs, head resting against his thigh. His very warm, bare (because of an unusually hot october, Nursey had been wearing shorts) and muscled thigh. Which Dex was not thinking about.

His hand had also curled gently around Nursey’s ankle to support himself, and Dex forced himself to try and relax. Ransom and Holster shared a bed sometimes, this was not that weird and besides, if Nursey had a problem with it, he would not have worried about kicking him away. Everything was fine. (As long as he ignored quite how nice it felt)

Actually, Dex decided, everything was definitely not fine. It was the opposite of fine, because Nursey was playing with his hair. It was only slight, a small gentle touch near the nape of his neck, but it was enough to make him feel warm all over.

Dex was sure he was blushing right now, but thankfully neither Bitty nor Nursey were paying him any attention. Instead, they were quietly chatting about the classes Nursey had signed up for, and from the sounds of it Bitty was trying to convince Nursey to let him try and teach him how to make scones in a shared free wednesday afternoon.

Despite the way Nursey’s innocent touch had made Dex feel, the muted conversation together with the soft touches was making Dex relax again far quicker than he had thought he would be able.He felt a moment of panic about going back to sleep again; maybe he should get up now? Leave before he embarrassed himself? But how exactly would he do that, let Nursey know that he was awake and face the horribly awkward conversation that would follow? Yeah, maybe falling asleep was the better option here.

Letting himself relax again, Dex turned his slightly into Nursey’s thigh and breathed out, letting the soft conversation and gentle touch lull him back into a light sleep.

* * *

 

Next time he woke up he found the lounge empty, and someone had thrown a blanket over Dex while he slept.


	3. Class

Dex wasn’t stupid. Sure, he was oblivious best of times and ignorant at his worst, but he wasn’t stupid. Nursey had been behaving strangely, and he was pretty sure it had started when Dex had fallen asleep on him at the Haus. It might have even started before that, but Dex had definitely noticed that Nursey was behaving almost carefully around him, as if he would break at the slightest pressure.

Honestly, Dex wasn’t sure what to make of it. On the one hand, he felt annoyed. He could take care of himself, he didn’t need Nursey babying him like this, but on the other hand? He was exhausted, and after falling asleep in front of Nursey twice in a relatively short period of time Dex was pretty certain that Nursey had picked up on that.

It was getting better though. Dex had finally tracked down his roommate after the embarrassment of falling asleep on Nursey had worn off and spoken to him about the importance of sleep. Thankfully, his roommate wasn’t entirely an asshole and was making some effort, but Dex was still getting woken up more nights than not.

Dex snuck a look to his left where Nursey was sitting paying absolutely no attention to the professor and instead doodling something in the margin of his notes. They didn’t share many interests and had completely different majors so this was the only class they had together, and normally it was fine. It had been fine the entire term, but Dex hadn’t spent the rest of the term remembering how Nursey’s fingers had felt in his hair.

Dex groaned quietly and dropped his head into his hand. _When had everything got so complicated?_ Nursey was his best friend, his partner on the ice. Nothing more, nothing less. _Maybe it’s the lack of sleep_ , he reasoned. There was no way he could actually be- no. There was no way.

He tried to focus on what the professor was saying. Dex had never been particularly good at English so really needed to have cohesive notes on this subject to pass it with a decent grade but he was having difficulty paying attention. Maybe he should look into buying earplugs.

Sighing, he looked over at Nursey again. It wasn’t just his roommate that was causing the problems. When he had got back to the dorm after sleeping at the Haus, he hadn’t been able to stop replaying the feeling of being pressed up against Nursey over in his mind.

It wasn’t the idea that he might be attracted to men that was bothering him; Dex had already had that panic in high school. At the time, he had ignored it, hoping that if he paid no attention then maybe one day he might find a girl he felt that way about. That wasn’t even that ridiculous an idea either, Shitty was always saying about how gender and sexuality are fluid, and there is no reason that if you’ve always been attracted to one gender you might one day be attracted to the other.

Now though, after spending over a year at Samwell surrounded by people like Bitty, who had had an even more homophobic upbringing and is still brave enough to be himself, and people like Shitty, who had shown him that the antiquated conservative views he had brought with him were exactly that – antiquated and conservative.

Going back to Maine over the summer had made him realise exactly how wrong everyone in his family actually was. The first time he heard his uncle mention the _gay agenda_ , Dex had almost laughed before realising that he was being completely serious. Dex had tried to ignore them all at first, but by the end of the summer he had given in and corrected them all in one long speech that Shitty would undoubtedly be proud of.

It had been one of the most terrifying moments of his life, and he was pretty sure that his mother had read between the lines enough to realise why Dex cared so much, but he’d left for Samwell straight after. He was glad he did it, but he not looking forward to going back for Christmas break.

So, long story short, Dex had accepted that he might be gay. He’d even tentatively thought about talking to Bitty, but he had not been prepared to get a crush on Nursey. Which – Oh God, he had a crush on Nursey. He actually - This didn’t make any sense. Nursey was a dick. They’d spent most of last year fighting, at each-other’s throats. It was only after spring break that they started to be more amicable, and sure they’d skyped quite a bit over summer, but that’s what friends did; Jack and Bitty had skyped all the time.

But there was also the fact that Nursey was actually really fun to be around. He had an incredibly sharp wit, and could be downright hilarious when he let go off his incessant _chill_. They worked together well on the ice, and had even started to work well together off the ice too, but none of this meant that he should have developed a crush! Friendship maybe, but why? Sure, Dex wasn’t blind, he knew Nursey was attractive, but-

“Okay everyone, lectures over. Leave homework on the desk on your way out.”

Dex jerked upright, pulling up a piece of paper stuck to him that he yanked off his face. There had been half an hour left, where had all the time go- he’d fallen asleep again. In front of Nursey. Again.

“Hey, you okay?” Nursey had already finished packing his bag and was looking at Dex with thinly veiled amusement, but also worry? Or maybe Dex was just seeing what he wanted to see. He was clearly very good at deluding himself.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Dex hurriedly started pushing everything into his bag, pausing only to pull out last week’s homework. Great, that had gone well. He’d fallen asleep in front of Nursey _again,_ realised that he had a crush on his best friend and missed all the notes on a class where he really couldn’t afford to miss any. Today was going amazingly.

“You know what, you can head back to the Haus, I think I’m just going to go back to my dorm” _and maybe just give up and cry a little while I’m there_. This was so stupid. He needed to find someone to borrow notes from. Nursey never took notes, but Dex didn’t really know anyone else in this class; another thing to make this day even better.

“Woah, dude, you look kinda pissed. Should I have woken you up? You just- I mean you’ve looked kinda tired lately and I didn’t think-“

“No it’s fine, it doesn’t matter. I just needed the notes for this class, but it’s fine. I’ll see you at the Haus later” Dex tried to walk away. So Nursey had noticed how tired Dex was, and more than that had tried to let him sleep because of it and Dex just really didn’t need this right now.

“Oh hey, here, have mine.” Nursey thrust a bunch of papers into Dex’s chest. Dex took them gingerly, and looked down to see Nursey’s handwriting. Looking closer he realised that these were in fact, the notes from the lesson. He looked up confused.

“You never take notes?”

“Yeah, well maybe I needed to this time. Look, it’s whatever, I’ll see you later.” Nursey shrugged Dex out of the way and walked over towards the door, leaving without looking back.

Dex looked down at the notes again. That was – weird. He’d never seen Nursey that flustered, and Dex was pretty sure if Nursey’s complexion allowed him to blush like Dex did, he would have been bright red.

Had Nursey taken notes for him? That seemed impossible, but Dex had never seen Nursey take any notes in this class. He almost didn’t recognise Nursey’s handwriting; he’d seen it so little. Dex was confused, but at least now he didn’t have to try and find anyone to copy the notes from. He could probably still make it to the Haus before everyone finished Bitty’s pies if he didn’t spend to long writing everything up. Today was looking up. As long as he didn’t think about Nursey. Goddamn it.

 


	4. Roadie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone was wondering, the music I mentioned was supposed to be 'Drifting Ships' by ['Baerlin'](https://baerlin.bandcamp.com/album/emerald-sky), but it can be whatever you'd prefer.  
> I'm just projecting my music tastes onto Nursey and my anger issues onto Dex here.
> 
> I have no idea what team they are supposed to be playing against when Bitty got checked, so I just went with Yale since it's the only other NCAA team I know. If anyone has a better suggestion for what team it might be, tell me in the comments and I'll change it!
> 
> Also, under the helpful advice of a couple of tumblr followers I didn't include Dex coming out to Bitty here, but it is already partially written, so - would people be interested if I posted a second part to this with that included?

So, not thinking about Nursey was not going well. Dex was having a terrible week even without the added stress of knowing that he had an unrequited crush on someone so far out of his league that they weren’t even playing the same sport. Well, metaphorically anyway _._ His classes were beating him down, a teacher had lost a report he’d handed in last week and was making him redo the whole thing, and the added awkwardness with Nursey was making English Lit a living hell.

Even worse, on top of all that he’d just had a phone call from his brother. While calls from home weren’t all that rare - he usually called his mother every week or so - he hadn’t spoken to any of his siblings since his outburst over summer. Turns out, his brother was calling _to make sure_ that his outburst was just him supporting his friends and that he hadn’t got any _ideas_ from his backwards new college. At that point, Dex had just hung up, far too incensed to even attempt to explain anything to his brother.

Sometimes Dex really hated the world and everyone on it. He usually tried to save that anger for the ice, but today he thought he was going to lose it before he even got that far; they were playing an away game that weekend. While normally that would be no problem, now it meant a couple of hours trapped next to Nursey, who again, _he wasn’t thinking about_ on top of trying to keep a handle on his anger.

What he really wanted now, Dex thought as he reached Faber, was to sit in the kitchen in the Haus with a piece of pie and rant about it to Bitty for a while. He’d built up the courage last week to finally say something to Bitty about his sexuality after his mother had brought it up the first time, and Bitty, being Bitty, had been wonderfully supportive about everything. His mother had been nowhere near as bad as this, however. In fact, she had been surprisingly okay with it. She didn’t understand, but she was trying. Now though, he just wanted to punch someone and hopefully, if this game went the way it usually did when they played Yale, he would.

He just had to survive the trip there first.

He nodded to Bitty when he passed him on his way through the coach. Their friendship had grown since Dex had spoken to him, and although Dex had accepted that he would never mean quite as much to Bitty as Chowder did, he was pretty sure he had become his ‘go to’ person to bitch about annoying republican relatives to. Dex was actually pretty okay about that fact.

Dex and Nursey usually sat towards the end of the coach however, so Dex continued on his way past Bitty and walked down towards their usual seats. Nursey had already reached the window seat before Dex had got there so he just slid into the seat beside him with a quiet exhale, resting his head on the backrest.

“You okay?” Nursey was looking over at Dex, but not seeming too worried. The games were starting to get more tense as the playoffs got closer, each team trying to win themselves a place. On top of that Yale were notorious for checking hard and ignoring rules, and no-one had to be reminded about what had happened to Bitty last year. Most of the team were looking various degrees of stressed out, and Lardo had been holding Bitty’s hand when he passed them on his way up.

“Yeah I’m fine. Just worried about the game, y’know.” Dex shrugged. He was comfortable complaining to Bitty about his family now, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to unload on Nursey any time soon. For one thing, that would definitely involve coming out to him and right now, Dex was perfectly happy with Nursey having no idea that sometimes his tastes strayed slightly away from the straight and narrow. He might be hiding his new found feelings okay as it was, but Nursey wasn’t stupid, and Dex did not want to make anything more obvious than it already was .

“Yeah, I get that. I hope Bitty’s going to be okay, I heard about that check he got last year. Sounded brutal.”

Dex winced. “I know. I think the coaches were thinking of keeping him on the bench as much as possible. I thought he was going to faint at practise this morning.”

“Gotta be tough being that small against a team like this.” Nursey looked over towards Bitty at the front of coach. “I heard he and Ja-”

Nursey was interrupted as Chowder clambered over the back of the seats in front of them to excitedly show Nursey something on his phone. Dex tuned them out, pulling his hat lower over his eyes and reaching into his bag for his phone. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with Chowders ever present cheer without snapping, and there were honestly few worse feelings than upsetting Chowder - it was like kicking an injured puppy.

It wasn’t a massively long trip, but Dex already felt exhausted. As the coach started to pull out of the parking lot, Dex began to realise with encroaching dread that his phone was nowhere to be found. _This was not happening, not today_. He pulled his bag up onto his lap to start rooting through more thoroughly but he knew it was useless, his bag was pretty much empty apart from a few old protein bars and a bottle of water.

“You looking for something in there?”

Dex froze, before groaning and dropping his head into his hands before mumbling an answer.

“Yeah, just- looking for my phone, but guess I forgot it. Just another fucking thing to go wrong on this stupid fucking day.” He threw his bag back under Chowder’s seat in front of him and slammed his head back into the headrest. Right now, there was a significant possibility that either Nursey was going to get punched or Dex would burst into tears, and which one happened depended entirely on whatever came out of Nursey’s mouth next.

Instead of an asinine comment however, Nursey just looked mildly taken aback. “Oh, that sucks man. You need it for something?”

Dex sighed and scrubbed his hand over his eyes. “No, it’s fine, I just wanted to listen to some music or something.” Just to get out of his head for a while, try and calm down before he was forced to try and act calm in front of the rest of the team.

“You wanna share headphones? I mean, chances are you won’t fully appreciate my music taste,” he said with a small quirk of the lip - not quite a smile, but a clear indication that the chirping was friendly and not supposed to cause any arguments. “But if you’re in a shit mood, then music is music right? Takes you out of it”

Dex turned and looked at Nursey. It was strange, he sometimes thought, how they could clash so often and argue constantly about the most inconsequential details, but there were moments when they just _got_ each other. Sometimes it was on the ice, where desperate shots turned into beautifully smooth one-timers, but other times? Other times it was Nursey knowing exactly when the argument had gone too far and cooling off, or knowing what Dex was about to say before he finished his own sentence, or helping him with his English homework without Dex even having to get past his pride and ask, but for once not mocking him for it as if he knew it was a sore point for Dex. The list felt endless sometimes, and now, it killed him that he could have this with someone, but not be able to be _with_ that person.

Nursey was still holding out a headphone as Dex looked at him, looking mostly unperturbed by how long Dex was taking to reply. There was another thing Nursey did for Dex that he’d almost missed until he started watching Nursey more closely; he waited. Dex wasn’t slow by any means, but he didn’t rush his words and rarely spoke without thinking through what he was going to say first, and sometimes people just assumed he was ignoring them and changed the subject. Nursey never did. Damn it. He knew he should try and distance himself before he fell harder than he apparently already had, but Nursey _was_ one of his closest friends. Dex felt himself give in; he did want to listen to something to calm the anger still simmering in him.

“Thanks” he said slowly, taking the headphone and putting it in one ear as he settled back, the coach steadily making its way out the campus. Nursey just shrugged gently, leaning back himself, slightly closer to Dex than usual. It was quiet for a moment, before a heavy note played in his ear. Nursey was right, Dex didn’t understand the music _at all_ , but it was calm and powerful and somewhat sombre? Honestly, it wasn’t what Dex had expected from Nursey. He’d been expecting cheesy indie-pop or alternative rock or something equally ‘quirky’, but this was… odd.

Dex looked over at Nursey, and raised one brow. “Dude, what is this?”

Nursey quirked that strange half smile again. “Hey, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to listen to it”

“No its… good? I guess? I just didn’t expect you to listen to this kind of thing.”

“Let me guess, you were expecting ‘The Smiths’ or something like that”

Dex reddened. That was exactly what he was expecting, but now that Nursey had brought attention to it he almost felt irritated with himself for lumping him into a box like that. He chose to just turn away instead with a huff, which made Nursey chuckle quietly beside him.

As Dex once again closed his eyes to try to calm himself for the game, he realised that the anger that had been burning him up all day had pretty much faded. Sure, he was definitely still pissed about his brother, but he no longer wanted to break something every time he thought about it. Maybe it was Nursey’s predictable but gentle ribbing, or maybe it was the foreign music playing in one ear, but Dex felt far more relaxed than he had since that phone call.

He was definitely in _way_ too deep. Maybe he should talk to Bitty.

* * *

 

The game went pretty much how they expected it would. Yale played dirty and got a few illegal moves past the refs, but for the most part the game went smoothly. Bitty spent most of the game on the bench, only coming on later in the game once the most of the enforcers on the opposing team had been switched out, and Dex had made sure to keep any of the more aggressive players as distracted as possible

They’d won 2-1 in overtime, everyone too worn out to fully celebrate their win yet. Dex could hear Holster chatting to Lardo about the kegster he was planning that night though, and he was pretty sure the Haus would be full to the brim. The mood steadily picked up as everyone slowly made their way back onto the coach for the journey back, Bitty giving Dex a warm smile as he passed him by.

Nursey was again already seated once Dex reached him, and this time wordlessly passed him a headphone once Dex had made himself comfortable. Dex took it with a small smile, diverting his attention between whatever it was the coaches were saying at the front and the gentle smile Nursey gave back in response.

The same strange music was playing as before, and Dex felt it slowly lull him towards sleep, but he didn’t bother fighting it this time. If Nursey and his obscure bands let him feel warm and comfortable, who was he to fight it. Dex was pretty sure if he was fully cognizant at the time, he would have had a very different opinion. Mostly consisting of _Ohmygod I’m being way too obvious he’s gonna figure me out_ , but at the moment he was relaxed and happy after their hard earned win and he let himself slide out of consciousness without worry.

* * *

 

When he woke, it was to the sound of Holster and Ransom chatting as the coach pulled into Samwell’s campus and the small groups of people heading toward the Haus became evident. He blinked blearily, confused for a moment. The headphone had fallen out his ear some point after he had fallen asleep, and after he had blinked away the last threads of sleep, he realised that he had fallen against Nursey and was leaning against him fully, head resting on his shoulder.

Dex didn’t move. They were slowly making their way toward Faber, Ransom and Holster pleading the coaches to let them jump off closer to the Haus. He could hear Bitty chatting animatedly to a mostly unresponsive Lardo nearer the front, he could hear the tinny music coming from the headphone that had dropped beside him, and he could hear Nursey breathing gently beside him.

Nursey was far too warm. He always seemed to run slightly hotter than everyone else, wearing short sleeves while Dex was forced to wear long sleeves and light jumpers, and he never failed to chirp Dex for wearing a hat or scarf when they were outside during the colder months. Normally this annoyed him about Nursey, but right now? Right now it was all he could focus on, the warmth coming from the arm Dex had curled himself around in his sleep and from the shoulder his face was pressed against.

He closed his eyes again, trying to savour the moment before he was pulled away, but at that thought the coach pulled into Faber and Nursey gently touched Dex’s shoulder, shaking slightly.

“Hey, Dex, we’re back. Time to wake up, man”

Dex raised his head slowly, not having to fake the sluggishness of his movements or the wide yawn that followed. He studiously avoided Nursey’s eyes, and could tell he was blushing brightly. It was one thing to lose yourself in being close to your crush, it was another to have to acknowledge it to them afterwards.

A quick peek over at Nursey showed that Nursey was doing the exact same, however, and Dex immediately felt guilty. He hadn’t wanted to make Nursey feel awkward or uncomfortable, he’d just wanted to-. Dex shook his head. He didn’t know what he wanted to do, but right now he knew that he wanted to remove himself from Nursey as soon as possible, and to try to get some sleep before practise tomorrow morning.

He hurried off the coach, followed closely by a still chattering Chowder and an unusually quiet Nursey. He said goodbye to them both, shaking off requests for him to come back to the Haus with rest of the team and instead turned and headed back to his dorm. Before he fully made it away however, he felt a hand grab his wrist.

Dex turned, ready to argue to Chowder that he just _wasn’t fully up to a kegster right now, maybe next time,_ but was instead faced by Nursey, looking far more uncomfortable than Dex had ever seen him before. Before Dex could speak, to ask him what he wanted or apologise for sleeping on him, Nursey spoke up, pushing a hand through his hair irritably as he did.

“Dex, man, uh. Try and get some sleep maybe tonight? As in, more than you normally do, you’ve been kind of down lately, and I’m worried, I guess.” He turned away slightly, looking back at the team scattered around the parking lot. “I’ll talk to Ransom, tell him you weren’t feeling well or had an exam or something so you don’t need to come to tomorrow's morning practise.”

Dex could only stare in bewilderment as Nursey shrugged, clapped him once on the shoulder once and jogged back towards Chowder and the rest of the team making their way towards the Haus. He felt as though he should have argued back, told Nursey that he could take care of himself and that it was none of Nursey’s business how he slept; but for once he didn’t want to. It actually felt quite nice to be noticed, to be taken care of like that.

He took Nursey’s advice and turned off his alarm for the following morning before crashing in his bed, and managed the longest night of sleep he had gotten at Samwell since returning after the holidays.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This is one of the first fics I've written in a very long time, so comments are appreciated  
> Find me on tumblr at [inevii.tumblr.com](http://inevii.tumblr.com/), and feel free to drop any prompts. I'm trying to get back into writing, so the more practise I have the better
> 
> Right now I'm in the middle of a horrible amount of exams, so updates might be a little slow, but **do not fear, I will finish this fic whenever I have free time**


End file.
